Disclosure and presentation

Please note that International Public Sector Accounting Standard (IPSAS) 15, 
Financial Instruments: Presentation and Disclosure has been superseded by 
IPSAS 28, 
Financial Instruments: Presentation; IPSAS 
29, Financial 
Instruments: Recognition and Measurement; and IPSAS 
30, Financial 
Instruments: Disclosures. These Standards apply for annual financial statements 
covering periods beginning on or after January 1, 2013. Earlier application is 
encouraged. IPSAS 15 remains applicable until these Standards are applied or 
become effective, whichever is earlier. 
Some public sector entities such as national governments and public sector financial 
institutions may hold a wide range of financial instruments. However, some 
individual government agencies may not issue or hold a wide range of instruments. 
In such cases, the Standard will have limited application and preparers of financial 
statements will need to identify those aspects of the Standard that apply to them. The 
purpose of the implementation guidance is to assist preparers in this task. 
Objective 
The dynamic nature of international financial markets has resulted in the widespread 
use of a variety of financial instruments ranging from traditional primary 
instruments, such as bonds, to various forms of derivative instruments, such as 
interest rate swaps. Public sector entities use a wide range of financial instruments 
from simple instruments such as payables and receivables to more complex 
instruments (such as cross-currency swaps to hedge commitments in foreign 
currencies) in their operations. To a lesser extent, public sector entities may issue 
equity instruments or compound liability/equity instruments. This may occur where 
an economic entity includes a partly-privatized Government Business Enterprise 
(GBE) that issues equity instruments into the financial markets or where a public 
sector entity issues debt instruments that convert to an ownership interest under 
certain conditions.
The objective of this Standard is to enhance financial statement users’ understanding 
of the significance of on-balance-sheet and off-balance-sheet financial instruments to 
a government’s or other public sector entity’s financial position, performance and 
cash flows. In this Standard, references to balance sheet in the context of on-balance-
sheet and off-balance-sheet have the same meaning as statement of financial 
position. 
The Standard prescribes certain requirements for presentation of on-balance-sheet 
financial instruments and identifies the information that should be disclosed about 
both on-balance-sheet (recognized) and off-balance-sheet (unrecognized) financial 
instruments. The presentation standards deal with the classification of financial 
instruments between liabilities and net assets/equity, the classification of related 
interest, dividends, revenues and expenses, and the circumstances in which financial 
assets and financial liabilities should be offset. The disclosure standards deal with 
information about factors that affect the amount, timing and certainty of an entity’s 

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FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS: DISCLOSURE AND PRESENTATION 
IPSAS 15 
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future cash flows relating to financial instruments and the accounting policies 
applied to the instruments. In addition, the Standard encourages disclosure of 
information about the nature and extent of an entity’s use of financial instruments, 
the financial purposes that they serve, the risks associated with them and 
management’s policies for controlling those risks.